Mike Fash BSC was born in New Malden, Surrey. His father was an architect and, initially, Fash intended to follow the same profession. He studied the subjects required for architecture while also pursuing his interest in painting, working in oils and attending life-drawing sessions. It was this combination of artistic and technical abilities that ultimately led him towards cinematography.
One of his professors recognised the unusual combination of skills and suggested that film might be his forte. He explained that the BBC was taking a small number of trainees each year, providing what, in 1959, was the only official training route into film and television. Fash was selected for the programme and began his professional career with the BBC.
He attended the BBC's training facility at Evesham before working in live television as a trainee, gaining experience across a range of technical categories. He subsequently transferred to Ealing Film Studios, where he chose to specialise in film.
After working as an assistant on documentaries, films for television and educational programmes, Fash began to develop a career as a documentary cinematographer. His work took him extensively around the world, and for several years he travelled throughout Africa, the Middle East and Europe, photographing documentaries and sending the material back to London.
His documentary work brought him into contact with Sir Jeremy Isaacs, who had become Head of Programming at Thames Television. Isaacs invited Fash to join Thames, and Fash subsequently established his own production company and worked as an independent filmmaker, using his own equipment.
The work took him into some of the world's major conflicts. He had just completed a documentary about Israel when the Six-Day War broke out in June 1967. He returned to the region with his camera and was with the Israeli forces when they entered Jerusalem and reached the Western Wall. He also filmed during the Biafran War in Nigeria and succeeded in obtaining rare footage from Hanoi towards the end of the Vietnam War.
Fash subsequently expanded his work into films for television, receiving several awards for his cinematography. He also developed a friendship with director Lindsay Anderson while photographing his first feature film for Anderson.
Increasingly, Fash received offers to work in the United States. After making several films there, the demands of international production and the resulting time away from his family led him to make a major change. He emigrated to the United States with his wife and their three children and settled in Connecticut. An Emmy Award for Best Photography for one of his American television films helped facilitate his application for a green card.
Fash subsequently established a commercial production company in New York. He became part of the thriving American commercial-film industry, benefiting from the international reputation of British commercial directors, including Ridley and Tony Scott. He combined commercial work with feature films and television productions, photographing throughout the United States as well as in Toronto and Vancouver.
Alongside his professional cinematography, Fash became involved in film education and community work. During one summer in Connecticut, he established a film school for underprivileged children in Bridgeport. Each Saturday he taught the children how to make documentaries, bringing in other local film-industry professionals to teach different aspects of production. The students' work was submitted to Washington by the Mayor of Bridgeport, resulting in a $50,000 grant for the school.
After his divorce, Fash moved to California, where he continued to work in film and television. His later career included international assignments, among them a period in Budapest as Supervising Director on a series for ABC.
He was subsequently invited to become a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he taught for three years. His move into education provided an opportunity to pass on the practical knowledge accumulated through a career encompassing documentary filmmaking, war photography, television drama, feature films and commercials.
In 2007, Fash decided to step back from the demands of professional filmmaking and moved to La Quinta, California, near Palm Springs.